[Value of secondary coronal reconstructions in computed tomography of the paranasal sinuses].

INTRODUCTION: Before sinus surgery, computed tomography (CT) of the paranasal sinuses and anterior skull base is a standard procedure in the diagnostic evaluation. However, coronal sections necessary for the analysis of the complex anatomy of this region are often not applicable in multiple injured or elderly patients due to the impossibility to maintain the required position for the coronal scans. Secondary coronal reconstruction of primary axially acquired scans could help to overcome this problem. This technique was, however, hampered so far by an insufficient resolution in case of conventional CT. We therefore compared the quality of primary coronally acquired conventional CT images with the resolution of multiplanar reformatted coronal images of primary axially acquired scans by means of a new CT generation, the Multidetector Computed Tomography (MDCT).
MATERIAL AND METHODS: 10 patients were each examined with conventional CT or MDCT respectively. The quality of primary coronally acquired conventional scans (CT) versus secondary coronal reconstructions (MDCT) was compared by evaluating typical anatomic landmarks.
RESULTS: As compared to conventional CT, the coronal reconstruction of primary axially acquired scans by means of MDCT revealed an equal resolution and additionally no essential impairment by amalgam artefacts.
CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate the excellent quality of secondary coronal reconstructions by means of MDCT in the CT evaluation of the paranasal sinuses and the anterior skull base as compared to primary coronally acquired images via conventional CT.